Filthy Litter | Google, Microsoft, General Electric &Quirky

What do these four companies have in common?

Besides being the tech-industry equivalent to puppy mills, these four couldgive a damn about startups. If you're a founder who has an idea worth pursu-ing, keep it stealth. The surreptitious CEOs or unnamed inner-circle sloths atopthese ivory towers smelled something they liked so much it was worth tryingto kill or steal... from startup, IIICTECH.

January 28, 2013 IIICTECH officially unveiled via PRWeb a just out of stealth,free & forthcoming over draft eliminating app, WINK. As well, IIICTECH alsorevealed their own wearable tech, BLINK.

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Seven days later Micro-soft Research Labs de-clared they'd concocted

a photo app called, BLINK. Sixty-five days passed & Google renamed Webkit,Blink... all while keeping the same version numbers & admitting no changes,except the name. The Next Web, troubled by the coincidence, brilliantly report-ed how twelve days after Google announced its own BLINK, Microsoft filed forthe registered trademark, BLINK with the USPTO. Google followed-suit short-ly after.

The long & short of it goes like this...

In early April General Electric then announced a partnership with shamelesslyled "startup" Quirky... and named it... WINK. Quirky is clearly convinced twoapp widgets are better than one to drive a single UX for Porkfolio... which sounimaginatively features a tutorial video clearly ripped off of IIICTECHsWINK Teaser released October 2012. Scattered coins. Check. Piggy Bank.

Check. Unnecessary App named WINK. Check. (See image below).

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All you need to know... are the dates. Only one fledgling startup has been us-ing both BLINK & WINK for more than a year-and-a-half. IIICTECH. Whatdoes this all mean?

Despite prior art, use & common law Intellectual Property Rights under theLanham Act, an outdated United States Patent & Trademark systemically ac-commodates, paves the welcome-way for unscrupulous & scrambling profitmongering-mega corps who are so glad to openly dilute the brand equity builtby any startup seemingly poses a threat.

Wow! They've gamified Trademark Law! You don't need to produce a realproduct... just toss one out from the reject pile to the proletariat... or slap a newname on the same feature already in use... no one will notice. Or will they?

Microsoft, we expected this out of you. GE & Quirky... you've got to be kidding

(SMILE). But Google?! What happened to Don't Be Evil? I'm not sure.

Presumably, it is extra hard to hear the echo of your own corporate drumbeatover all the shrieking lawyers you require to operate an Evil (Dead To Me)businesses these days. You know... the shrieking from the lawyers who gladlyget-down on all-fours & do your bidding. In this case, gladly bury IP rights &overshadow a startup that's still standing strong, and a real chance.

In reality, the actions of Google, Microsoft, General Electric & Quirky simplyreaffirm what they believe to be innovative vision. In part, it's really nothingmore than the oh so very sad profit driven maneuvering of any internal busi-ness ethics. Because that's what innovation is all about... Right? Go on... Fistingyour loyal-ish legion of lawyers right into the future... just long-enough for thatsad puppy-mill-business-model of yours to push out another litter of your in-novations (technically, but not really).

For more information about this corporate cluster**ck visit the Trademark TrollBlog.